


You Know It

by starryeyedchar



Series: Voltron Whump Week [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Blood and Injury, Established Relationship, Injury, M/M, Near Death Experiences, Whump, some fluff at the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-12-15 18:11:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11811477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryeyedchar/pseuds/starryeyedchar
Summary: “Keith! You've got to stop doing that! I had them, and we wouldn't have set off any alarms that way!” Lance protested, gesturing at the flashing red lights above them.“This is a quick mission!” Keith called back. “Just gotta get the scaultrite they stole from the Weblum, and get out. No time to shoot down each sentry one by one. There aren't even that many of them.”Ironically enough, at that exact moment the door opened, and more robots flooded into the room.For Day 3 of VLD Whump Week- Near Death/Blood Loss.





	You Know It

**Author's Note:**

> They're actually already together in this fic, but it's not really obvious until they end because I like to think they'd still playfully bicker/tease each other, so keep that in mind.
> 
> I could've done one or the other for the prompts, or combined them into one, but I decided to separate them a little. Does that make sense? Oh, whatever, you'll see.

Lance let out a slow breath, peering through his rifle's scope down at the sentries. “There aren't that many of them,” he observed. “But I've got the feeling that there are more we can't see. I'll take out these from up here, then—”

“If there are more, I'll draw them out!” Keith shouted, and Lance winced, pressing a hand to his com. The red paladin would constantly scream before running into battle, forgetting that the others could hear him perfectly clear. He ran out of his hiding spot, and cut down the nearest two sentries quickly with his bayard. The others caught on and rushed towards him.

“Keith! You've got to stop doing that! I had them, and we wouldn't have set off any alarms that way!” Lance protested, gesturing at the flashing red lights above them.

“This is a quick mission!” Keith called back. “Just gotta get the scaultrite they stole from the Weblum, and get out. No time to shoot down each sentry one by one. There aren't even that many of them.”

Ironically enough, at that exact moment the door opened, and more robots flooded into the room.

Lance cursed, and jetpacked down onto the ground as fast as he could. With numbers like that, Keith would quickly be overwhelmed. So this would be a close combat fight, then. Lance sighed, and morphed his sniper rifle into a blaster. He _hated_ close combat.

“Nice job, fearless leader,” Lance deadpanned, turning to stand back to back with Keith. “What was that you were saying? 'There aren't even that many?'”

“Shut up, Lance,” Keith growled. “Let's just take these guys out.”

Lance smirked. “I got your back, but you sure you can handle it, Samurai?”

“You know it.”

Thankfully most of the new crowd of sentries fought with swords, not guns, so Lance was able to take them out before they got too close. Unfortunately, though, whenever one close to them fell it seemed another was there quickly to take its place. And they just kept coming.

“Pidge? How're you and Hunk holding up?” Lance called over the sound of his bayard firing.

“Well, thanks to you guys setting off the alarms, Lotor knows we're here. But all the sentries on this ship went off to where you guys are, so we've got a pretty clear path to where I picked up the scaultrite's signature,” Pidge informed him. “If you guys can keep them occupied, this mission might actually be a success.”

Lance nodded. “We're good.” His voice thankfully came out a lot more confident than he actually felt.

“Allura, Shiro, what about you?” Keith asked, kicking yet another robot to the floor.

“Between the castle and Blue we've pretty much taken out all the fighter jets,” Allura said. “Lotor's not out here in his ship, though, so he and the generals must be elsewhere. It's concerning, but we'll deal with that when we've got the scaultrite.”

“Roger that,” Lance affirmed, turning his full attention to the fight again. The sentries kept getting closer and closer as he dropped them, and he couldn't take them down more than two at a time, so they kept inching closer. And the closer they got, the harder it was to take them down, so Lance found himself in a vicious cycle. Keith, who excelled at fighting up close, didn't seem to have the same problem.

Suddenly, one of the bots who had been getting dangerously close to Lance on his right side surged forward, sword-wielding arm outstretched, and Lance had to make a decision.

He would've been able to block it with his shield, but the blaster required two hands to aim properly, and so it wasn't activated. The way the sword was going it would graze both him and Keith, since they were standing so close. Lance could dodge it easily, but he definitely didn't have enough time to warn Keith, so the red paladin would end up getting stabbed full force. Lance did, however, have time to move in front of the sword to take the full injury himself.

So that was what he did. All things considered, it wasn't much of a choice at all.

His thoughts had run through each scenario in the pace of half a second, and then Lance was leaning into the blade to block it from hitting Keith as it plunged deep into his shoulder. He let out a strangled yelp, fingers letting go of his bayard with the sudden pain. The blaster clattered to the floor and Lance feel soon after, clutching at his wound as blood leaked from between his fingers.

The sentry leveled it's blade at Lance's throat, and he felt his heart stutter. All the robots suddenly stopped, looking towards it. Maybe they'd been programmed to capture them alive.

Keith stopped fighting, and whirled around to see Lance lying on the ground, defenseless and bleeding, with a weapon pointed at him. He took half a step forward before freezing, eyes impossibly wide.

“Lance...” His voice was stained, and Lance smiled shakily.

“ _Surrender or your friend dies_ ,” the sentry's automated voice threatened, and Lance flinched. So maybe the whole 'capturing them alive' thing was more of a preference than a necessity.

Keith slowly raised his hands, deactivated his bayard in the process. _His bayard_...

The red bayard lay at Keith's feet. Lance stared at it pointedly before bringing his gaze back up to Keith, who, once he realized what Lance was trying to indicate, kicked it forward. Right into Lance's waiting hands.

Lance activated it and had shot down the sentry standing over him in a heartbeat. He grabbed its sword before it could fall and hurt him, and used it to sloppily hack the sentries around him in half. Keith fought with his own sword furiously, and Lance aimed his bayard with shaking hands.

The pain in his shoulder and steadily increasing blood loss were making it difficult to see or shoot properly, but he hit the control panel to close the doors, eliminating the threat of more guards entering. Keith finished off the ones remaining in the room with them, then turned to Lance, breathless.

“Let me see your shoulder,” he demanded. Lance complied, removing his hand from the wound reluctantly. “It's pretty deep, but as long as you get to a pod once we're back at the castle you should be fine.”

“Great,” Lance started to stand up, but Keith put a hand on his uninjured shoulder and sat him back down.

“What do you mean 'great?' That robot was pointing a sword right at you! You could've died!”

“But I didn't,” Lance reminded him, and Keith scowled.

“That's not the point! The point is, that was too close! How'd that even happen, anyway? One second you were fighting right behind me, and the next I turn and you're bleeding on the ground!” Keith's voice was rising in urgency, but Lance just stared at his feet. Keith's expression switched almost immediately from anger to surprise. “It... it would've hit me, wouldn't it?”

Lance bit his lip, and offered a guilty smile. “Sorry? You're way better in close combat than I am, so if _you_ got hurt, then we'd really be in trouble.”

Keith just stared at him for a moment, before bending down and pulling out the first aid kit. “You're lucky that Allura made me start bringing this on missions. Now hold still. I'm not going to just let you bleed out while we wait for a pod.”

Lance flinched as Keith edged the torn armor away from the wound, and turned on his coms to focus his attention elsewhere. “Pidge, how's it going on your end?”

“We got the scaultrite and are heading back to the green lion,” she reported. “You two should try and get back to Red as soon as possible, so Allura can wormhole us out of here.”

“Are you two okay?” Hunk piped up, worry evident in his voice.

Before Lance could reply, Keith spoke. “Lance got himself _stabbed,_ but we're otherwise fine. You should start prepping a pod, Coran.”

The line was immediately filled with questions, concern, and a brief agreement from Coran.

“It's just my shoulder!” Lance assured them. “I'm fine! Keith's just being an ass and insisting that he bandage me up before I get to the castle.”

“You've lost a decent amount of blood, and the wound is pretty deep,” Keith reasoned. “Not to mention that last sentry almost killed you. If you think I'd let you fly Red back without treating it, then you're even dumber than I thought you were.”

“At this rate I'm not even going to need a pod,” Lance grumbled. “I swear! It's not even that bad. I don't get why you're so upset about a minor injury.”

“He's upset because it's  _you_ , you dork,” Pidge pointed out. “Couldn't care in the slightest when something happens to one of us, but if his  _boyfriend_ gets so much as a bruise he's all worried.”

Lance blushed. “Shut up, Pidge.”

“You know I'm right,” she shot back. Neither of them responded.

“...Okay, well I'm going to turn off our coms now, see you back at the ship you two!” Hunk said cheerily. Pidge's annoyed protests were cut off midway.

Lance brought his eyes up to look at Keith, who was still intensely focused on bandaging up Keith's arm. “I... I really am sorry. For worrying you. I know fighting a war in space isn't actually the best time to be... you know, involved with someone. I'll try to be more careful?”

Keith met his eye. “I know you, Lance. You're never careful. Hell, you're the red paladin now. You're not  _supposed_ to be careful.”

“True. You're always recklessly putting yourself in danger. If it makes you feel any better, I always got super worried whenever you were hurt, too. And that was before we were even together.”

Keith laughed softly. “Maybe that's why we're such a good team.” Lance felt like his face was on fire as Keith leaned forward and gave him a quick peck on the lips before standing. He helped Lance up. “Ready to head back, Sharpshooter?”

Lance grinned. “You know it.”

 


End file.
